[All]: Gabriel’s willing descent at God’s command recapitulates Lucifer’s unhappy fall in st. 7. Schottmann (1973, 202) cites as a parallel a pseudo-Augustinian Christmas homily: Moxque uolatu rapido secat axem astriferum, nubesque profundas celer adiit, perculsitque lumine noctem. Ipse per medios caeli sinus flammeos artus vibrans, ignito aere fertur; et, ueluti cum pavo uersicolor obiectus radiis multifluos colores pinnis creptitantibus fundit, nunc aureo, nunc roseo nunc uiridi, nunc purpureo mixtus honori décor diem mutat picturis infectum et coloribus uariis ‘And soon, with rapid flight, he flew through the star-bearing heavens, and rapidly approached the dense clouds, and cast light through the night. He moved swiftly through the middle heaven, aflame with burning air, and just as a multicolored peacock displays many changing colors with its rustling wings, splendor mingled with honor transformed the day, coloring it with various hues’ (Barré 1963, 66).